


The Destinies of a Reconditioned Clone and a Scorned Scientist

by MySecretAccount



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Canon Continuation, Entrapdak, F/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22077511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MySecretAccount/pseuds/MySecretAccount
Summary: Picking up where season 4 left off, this work continues the canon focusing mainly on the actions and emotions of Entrapta and Hordak and how these two characters fit into each others lives as well as the Destiny of Etheria and the Horde.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	1. Epsilon 497 and Princess Entrapta

Pain.   
That’s all that there was to know.   
Intense pain in his ports, and in his head, and in his lungs.  
Horde Prime.   
The Empire.  
Fighting techniques  
Battle strategies.  
All these things were forced into his head.  
There was an immense pressure pushing on his skull, causing pain behind his eyes.   
His eyes were forced open.   
He was surrounded by a green light, and he was floating?   
He heard a rushing sound, and he was pulled out onto a cold floor. His lungs contracted painfully, forcing the liquid up and onto the floor. It caused a stinging pain in his chest and his throat. He could taste something new. Salt?   
“Cadet.” A voice spoke from above him, he turned his head, his cheek still pressed against the cold, gridded floor. His vision was blurred and he tried to blink away any excess saline. “Stand up Cadet.”   
He forced his limbs into action. His arms pushed off against the cold, wet floor, his legs stiffened under him, straightening and holding up his weight. He felt cold.   
“Acceptable. You are Cadet Epsilon 497, shortened to E497 for efficiency. You are a part of the 4th Battalion, in the 4th squadron. You are one of 500 new clones of Horde Prime within this squadron. You will meet them in gym Delta 5 for a briefing and simple training in 3 clicks, I strongly suggest you start moving, as tardiness is unacceptable and will be punished as such.”   
The clone he had been talking to pressed some buttons on his data pad before moving to the next vitrine and pressing a large purple button that caused it to open and spill out onto the floor.   
He knew the distance and directions to gym Delta 5, it was 2 lengths away from Lab 6 and required two left turns followed by a right. It would take just under 3 clicks to get there. He started moving.   
As he made the right turn, two other clones caught up with, and walked beside him. None of them said anything. 

Princess Entrapta had been given three rooms of her own in Brightmoon. The first two were connected; a lavishly furnished, purple themed bedroom and bathroom. The third was a lab, a sleek brightly lit lab filled with shiny scrap and a few first ones crystals. The only similarity it had with their-- with Hordak’s, sanctum was that it could be defined as a lab. The bright lights had already begun to give her a headache.   
She finished working on the circuits of a broken ship and lifted the heavy cover panel back into place. Well, she tried to lift the panel back into place. She was not weak, by any stretch of the word, but metal could be heavy, especially such a large and awkwardly sized panel. If she was back in the Sanctum this wouldn’t be a problem, Hordak would simply lift the panel, with his larger wingspan and technologically enhanced strength he was very helpful with larger projects.   
But he was gone now…  
At least Scorpia had brought Emily to Bright Moon. While Emily screwed the plate back in, Entrapta emerged from under the ship and sent Bow an alert to let him know the ship was ready.   
“Oh Emily, at least I’ve got you.” Entrapta listened to Emily’s responsive whirring and made a mental note to give her an oil change at the end of the week.   
“Hey Entrapta! I got your message about the ship.” Bow wandered into her work space and the sheer amount of positive energy that he carried with him managed to lift her spirits just a little.   
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad, mostly just aesthetic damage, a few scorch marks, and a couple of blown circuits.” Entrapta wiped her greasy hands on a Turps soaked rag before using her hair to swing through the crowded area and over to the other side of the ship where Bow was standing.   
“Okay, an easy fix then! Sea Hawk will be glad to have his ‘baby’ back.” Bow moved to leave but then turned back around again. “The rest of the Princess Alliance is having dinner together in the main dining room in about 15 minutes, we’d love it if you could make it. What’dya say?”   
Entrapta didn’t like dinner parties. She hardly ever got to eat tiny food and most people didn't want to talk to her anyway. But she figured that if this was going to be her new life, she might as well try and learn the best way to respond to such a situation. “Yes, I will be there, I’m uh, looking forward to it?”   
“Don’t worry, it’s also a strategy meeting and we could really use your help.” 

“Listen up Cadets, because I’m only going to say this once.” Epsilon 497 stood surrounded by 499 other clones in gym Delta 5, while a 500th clone stood on a platform and yelled down at the squadron. “You’ve all been generated for the imperative purpose of defending and expanding the Empire of Horde Prime. You have the most important job of leading a 2 squadron battle in the 36th sector of the planet Etheria in a strategic move to disperse their rebellious force. You will have a 75 click training session in order to learn to work as a squadron and you will board a transport to be deployed at precisely 7600 clicks. Is this understood?”   
“Yes Commander.” The clones chorused.   
“For the Glory of Horde Prime!”  
“For the Glory of Horde Prime!” The clones responded.   
The clones moved to disperse into 5 groups where they began some simple drills in battle techniques that they had all been taught in the vitrine. E497 learned quickly. E495 was slow to strike by approximately 5 milliclicks. E483 often lost track of his greater surrounding by focusing too heavily on the subject in front of them.   
E497 also learned about himself, he had realised earlier that parts of his body were a different colour, and that his arms were significantly thinner and weaker. In a population built of clones, being different was the biggest weakness of all. The other clones mostly ignored him, choosing to form ranks with each other rather than with him. Why join a weaker clone when it could lead to death? To accomodate for his weakness he would fight more with his legs, and his sword.   
In what felt like no time at all the cadets were called to order and loaded into a transport. E497 sat by himself, and prepared himself for his first, and likely last battle for the Glory of Horde Prime. 

Entrapta would really be more comfortable in her coveralls, but she also didn’t want to offend the other princesses by showing up to a dinner meeting in “oil covered rags,” as Perfuma had once put it. Luckily, it was late and after dinner she intended to go straight to bed rather than go back into the workshop, this meant she wouldn't need to change back into her coveralls.   
The Princesses had brought her old clothes over from Dryl, or rather what they thought were her old clothes. It turned out they had brought over her Mother’s clothes from when she used to attend Court and Strategy meetings in Bright Moon. Mostly they were A Line dresses, sewn to show off the figure that both Entrapta and her Mother had been ‘blessed’ with. All of them had pockets for practicality, and most had frills or sequins.   
She decided on the plainest dress she could find. It was still a shimmery pale purple to represent the queendom of Dryl, but at least it was absent of anything that could catch on a corner or rough edge, or draw too much attention to her.   
She washed her face of any last grease and left her hair in it’s signature pigtails before heading off to what was somehow the scariest thing she’d faced since Princess Prom and being trapped in an incinerator. 

“Entrapta!” Adora waved her over to a seat in between her and Bow. “We’re so glad you could make it. We’ve missed you.”   
“Also we could really use your knowledge of the Horde to get Glimmer back.” Swiftwind was at the table and had, for some reason, been given a chair.   
“Swiftwind!” Bow chastised. “We’re just glad you’re back. Now, let’s eat!”   
As if suddenly realising this wasn’t just a strategy meeting everyone at the table began heaping food onto their plates. Entrapta looked at the table in front of her and was shocked to find two platters of tiny versions of chicken, ham, broccolini and any other food that was present on the table. She smiled gleefully and began to load up her plate.   
“We remembered you prefer little foods.” Adora said while reaching for the potatoes. “I like your new dress, but you should also know that you don’t have to pretend with us. I mean, swiftwind is eating oats and hay off a crystal platter, no one would think twice of you wore your coveralls.”   
“Also,” this time it was Bow, “ we know what you went through was difficult, we understand if you need time to adjust and we’re all here if you want to talk. We’ll understand.”   
“Thank you.” Entrapta said softly before taking a bite of a tiny ham sandwich.   
“Okay,” Mermista spoke up, “let’s talk strategy. How do we plan to get Glimmer off a spaceship that’s orbiting Etheria?”   
“Oh, it’s not actually in orbit.” Entrapta supplied, but looked away immediately.   
“Entrapta’s right.” Bow added, “and she’s had the most experience with this kind of tech, I’m sure she’s got some ideas.” Bow smiled at her encouragingly.   
“Well, uh,” Entrapta stammered but took a deep breath, science and tactics she could handle. “We have Mara’s ship but it’s likely Horde Prime would shoot that down on sight, so the best plan would be to capture and hack one of Prime’s larger drones and use that to board the ship.”   
“Oh!” Frosta put her hand in the air to call for attention. “Those are the shiny dark green ships he uses in the skirmishes at the Whispering Woods, right?”   
“Yeah, I’m sure we’d be able to capture one, we just need a battle.” Bow seemed pretty confident in the rebellion’s abilities.   
“There should be one later tomorrow if they’re following the same pattern as the past week.” Adora’s calm and commanding voice reminded Entrapta that not only had she grown up in the Horde, but she’d been a Force Captain. “ say we use that as our opportunity.”   
Entrapta stayed quiet for the rest of the dinner, simply observing the other princesses in conversation with each other.   
Mermista and Perfuma seemed pretty close with each other, chatting happily about Sea Hawk’s latest ‘adventure’ and how he was still in the infirmary.   
Frosta was telling Scorpia about one of their early battles with the Horde and how she intended to implement Ice Pincers into her battle tactics.   
Bow and Adora mostly talked about the finer details of tomorrow's battle, turning to Entrapta for her opinion every now and then, while simultaneously trying to humour Swiftwind’s ridiculous suggestions.   
The dinner meeting wasn’t anywhere near as bad as she had thought.


	2. Capture The Flag (Drone)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two Battles in this chapter, one between the Horde and Etheria, and one that rages constantly in the heart of a princess.

“Emily, can you please hand me the other sock?” Entrapta was tying her left boot and the right sock was juuuuuuust out of reach. Emily whirred in response before dutifully brining the desired garment. As Entrapta finished up the last laces the door to her room swung open.   
“NO! I think we deserve an explanation! We’ve left it long enough, I--” Adora was obviously in the middle of a disagreement with Bow. “Entrapta we need to talk.” Her tone was the kind of tone that Entrapta would hear after a particularly violent explosion had demolished a room of the Castle.   
“You have to understand that we’re not asking you this because we don’t trust you, it’s just that well--” Bow’s tone was wary, like he was worried Adora was going to say something particularly careful.   
“That’s okay, I don’t have any secrets, you can ask me whatever.” Entrapta was confused. Since she’d come to Brightmoon she’d upgraded weapons, fixed ships, and hadn’t caused any major explosions, why would she be in trouble?   
“After you got trapped in the Fright Zone, you stayed with the Horde willingly, we need to know why.” Adora’s question was simple but her tone was forceful, there would be no avoiding the topic.   
“Oh,” Entrapta said pulling down her mask, “I figured you’d want to know sooner or later, it makes sense that you ask before a major battle with Horde Prime’s forces.”  
“Entrapta,” Bow’s tone was gentle, but he didn’t retract Adora’s question. “Please.”   
“Well, Catra and Scorpia they let me experiment with all the tech in the Fright Zone, and then they let me test my theories about the Black Garnet.” Bow and Adora both looked away, obviously remembering the more horrific parts of the Battle of Brightmoon. “And then, I uh, I snuck into Hordak’s lab to get a Hex Driver--”  
“Oh Entrapta! How could you! What if he caught you!” Adora seemed to recall what she had been taught in The Horde.  
“But that’s the thing, he did catch me!” Bow and Adora both looked stricken, as though they were preparing for a horror story. 

The 4th squadron of the 4th Battalion stood ready in perfect lines as the doors of the transport opened to the planet Etheria. Like any good soldier Epsilon 497 took in the battlefield, there were 1000 of them; clones without armour and with only a sword as a weapon, compared to about 100 of their opponents.   
Most of their opponents were a bright, shiny, or primary colour; they had robots and lasers to support their forces. The closest thing the Horde had was their drones, aerial fighters with laser capabilities.   
The power of the Horde lay in Prime’s ability to simply destroy an entire planet. In most fights, the sheer number of clones that their enemies would need to face was their best strategy for a win with minimal expense. There was no way that the Horde had the resources to issue every single clone with a gun that could easily be destroyed and would also require charging or ammunition. Instead they were issued with reusable, sturdy, swords, and E497 gripped his sword tightly as the clones entered a light jog and surged onto the battlefield.

“He was working on an energy source for the Portal Machine, but he was using uninsulated cables so of course it wouldn’t hold the charge and--” at the blank expression on Adora’s face, Entrapta returned to the main thread of the conversation. “Well, he stormed off and I uh, I replaced the cables for him, and he came back when I was almost done, of course he was angry at first, but once he saw how well it was working and I had a look around at the Portal formulas, well he asked me to work with him.  
Once we got the machine to hold the charge we started rerouting more and more power, then I blew out the energy grid, so I redesigned that. Sorry, back on topic. He could be loud when he was angry but he never tried to hurt me, in fact when the Portal Machine exploded early on, he shielded me from the blast He listened to my theories, he understood them, he never asked me to stop talking or change topic.  
Then, the day he shielded me from the Portal, he got hurt, kind of. He has this condition and his armour, it holds him together, but he’s had to build it by himself from scratch, so when it broke because he tried to save me, I redesigned it for him. It’s more lightweight, more powerful, and it’s powered by a First Ones crystal, he told me about Horde Prime.  
I uh, I realised that I liked Hordak, like a lot. He even, he even said that we could slow work on the Portal so that we could spend more time together.  
But then Catra sent me to Beast Island, and he left me, and now I’m here.” Entrapta’s voice trailed off as she reached the end of her tale.  
Bow and Adora stared at her with dumbfounded expressions, Bow was the first to shake his trance. “You, ‘liked him a lot’?”   
Entrapta nodded slowly, “Adora, you can read First Ones writing, did you ever read what was on Hordak’s crystal?”   
Adora’s eyes went wide. “But-- you-- he--really?”   
“What? What does it say?” Bow looked between the two girls but Entrapta just dropped her gaze to the ground.   
“It says, loved.”   
“Oh”   
“Entrapta,” Adora’s voice was gentle now, and Entrapta lifted her mask back off her face. “We just need to know if you’re okay to fight today, they’re his clones, we understand if you’d rather stay back here.”   
“No,” Entrapta shook her head, her pigtails swaying gently. “I need to face them, I need to face him. But I promise I won’t let you down.”   
“Okay,” Bow’s voice had perked up to his usual ecstatic pitch, “bring it in! Best Friend hug time!” 

Battle, in any war, isn’t a slow noble act. It is a frenzy of swinging blades, blood, being pushed and shoved. There is no fancy block and parry in a battle, swing hard and aim for the head, take out your opponent before they take you out. Some say that only focusing on those directly in front of you is a good tactic, but that’s a sure fire way to get a sword to the side.   
E497 found himself beside E495, he watched in horror as he engaged in combat with a tall enemy foot soldier in shiny lilac armour, when suddenly a spear of ice shot out towards him. E495 was too slow to block and was hit square in the chest and pushed back by 2 lengths. E497 knew immediately that he wouldn't be getting up, and that he would likely die from internal bleeding. 

The princesses stood on the field, staring down the transport as it came in for landing. The plan was simple, about 90 foot soldiers and royal guards would team up with Mermista, Frosta and Perfuma, while Scorpia would try to shock a drone so that Entrapta and Bow could capture it for reprogramming.   
The clones emerged and the battle dissolved into chaos. The elemental princesses were throwing everything they had at the Horde soldiers. Waves of salt water took out an entire row of soldiers, washing them into the thicket of the Whispering Woods. Precise spikes of ice picked off soldiers that were being particularly troublesome. A plant golem was crushing clones under its feet while vines tangled up any survivors. She Ra and Bow made short work of any clones that tried to get close to Scorpia or Entrapta. Any that did slip past were either shocked or thrown far away by tendril of purple hair. 

E497 saw the battle in flashes, flashes of light, and ice, and water, and plants, and steel. He saw one of his brothers, E483 was focused on slashing at the roots of a plant and didn’t see the soldier coming up beside him. It was too late, E483 now bore a sharp, bleeding cut from his collarbone to his sternum. Dark blue blood leaked across his chest and dripped onto the ground.   
E497 snapped his head upwards as the field shook with a large crack and light flooded the sky.

Entrapta watched the two drones, they flew in a pattern, and needed about 2 minutes to recharge. One flew low and fast, but Entrapta turned her attention to the second.  
“Scorpia, Bow! There, shoot that one, on my mark!” She waited for two breaths. “NOW!”   
Scorpia’s eyes glowed bright red and a steady flow of electrons was sent out to the drone with a resounding crack. At the same time an arrow arced through the air, crackling with energy.   
The drone didn’t stand a chance, it fell to the ground sliding to a stop right in front of them.   
“Yeah!” She Ra cheered. “Good work Entrapta, now we just have to get this back to Brightmoon.”   
“I got it!” Perfuma drew back from the battle, roots from trees gently encased the drone and began pulling it away. After about a minute, once Entrapta was sure the drone was safe, She Ra whistled and the forces of Bright Moon retreated. 

One of their drones had been shot down. E497 tried to fight his way through, to get to the drone, the other clones were all locked in battle, being distracted by soldiers, or waves, or blizzards. He tried with all his effort and strength for what felt like an eternity, but he soon found himself tangled in the roots of a plant that hadn’t been there a moment ago. As he slashed and cut at the dreaded roots the Etherian forces withdrew. They left only an eerie silence, and two broken squadrons of clones on the battlefield.


	3. He's Committed War Crimes!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How does the Horde treat it's injured soldiers who fight bravely for the Empire? How is the Rebellion going to get their Queen (and Catra) back? And how could Entrapta love someone who's committed war crimes?

“Ooooooh” Entrapta was almost swooning. “I’ve never seen tech like this!” She was swinging all around the ship with her hair, taking in the majesty of such advanced tech. At one point she had had her recorder out, but that was long forgotten in awe of the shiny green drone. “It’s so smooth, you can’t even see the joins of the panels with the naked eye, that must give it such amazing aerodynamics!”   
Bow was also very interested but not quite as fanatic as Entrapta.  
Adora was standing in the corner, in awe of Entrapta’s amazement and the speed and pitch at which she was speaking.   
“An ogival delta wing so that it’s efficient both above and below the speed of sound.” Entrapta sounded like that wing was the most beautiful thing she’d ever set her eyes on. “No sign of an afterburner though? Not even a turbojet engine, it must be so light and aerodynamic it can surpass Mach 1 with only a turbofan engine!” Entrapta whipped down her mask and produced a saw from seemingly thin air, then she giggled gleefully as she cut into the smooth metal.   
“Uhh, Entrapta can we talk to you while you’re working?” Adora was playing around with her sword, fighting invisible soldiers.   
“Yeah of course, just make sure to shout over the saw!” Entrapta turned back to the drone but it was clear that she was still able to listen at the same time.   
“We need to talk about Hordak.” Adora was never very good at beating around the bush, but judging from the glare Bow shot her she should have tried harder here.   
“What we mean is, we would like to talk about what you see in him.” Bow was being much more gentle about approaching the topic.   
“I’m not very good at talking about this kind of thing, I hardly understand my own feelings half the time.” Entrapta had managed to pull back one of the panels under the fuselage and began digging through wires. “This is the best day of my life!”   
“Entrapta,” Adora’s voice was pained, “he invaded towns and villages, he tried to destroy the whispering woods!”   
“Do you know why he did that?” Entrapta was trying very hard to keep her voice in a calm and considerate tone while also digging through a mess of wires. She had to remind herself that Adora didn’t mean to be cruel, she simply didn’t know the whole story.   
“Wha- uh, because he wanted to conquer Etheria!” Adora seemed to be getting distressed but Bow seemed to have picked up that there was more to the situation.   
“No, I think she means, ‘why did he want to conquer Etheria,’ right?” Bow had taken a step away from the drone to try and calm Adora down.   
“Yes, that is what I mean.” Entrapta had almost crawled the whole way into the fuselage of the drone. “I think I can probably fit 7 people onto the drone by shuffling around some of the data storage tech.”   
“Okay, that’s good we can probably work with that,” Adora’s attention returned to the mission at hand. “Then we can bring 5 up so that way we can bring Glimmer and Catra back down.” Adora returned to their earlier topic of conversation. “What do you mean? I always just figured he was hungry for power and control.”   
“Oh no,” Entrapta almost burst out laughing. “The only things he’s hungry for are knowledge and Saltines.” Bow had begun pacing around, like he was trying to solve some great puzzle and was getting increasingly frustrated that the answer was just out of reach.   
“Then why would he do all these terrible things!” Bow exclaimed while throwing his arms in the air and giving a large exasperated sigh.  
“No need to get huffy,” Entrapta emerged from the drone and sat herself down on top of a workbench, a circuit board and soldering tool in hand. “You already know that he’s a clone of Horde Prime, and you might have noticed that he looks a bit different from the other clones.” Entrapta looked up and continued when she saw Bow and Adora nod. “That’s because there was a defect in his cloning, some sort of genetic anomaly. You see he used to be Horde Prime’s favourite general, but then Prime found out about his genetic anomaly, told him that he was worthless and sent him to die on the front lines of some planetary battle.”   
“Wait, what’s his defect? He seemed like a perfectly capable leader in the Horde.” Adora seemed to think his defect could affect his decision making and reasoning.   
“His defect is purely physical, he’s weaker, his arms are effectively skeletal, and his armour is what holds him together, it doesn’t affect his ability to lead or reason, anyway--” Entrapta tried to continue her explaination but Adora interjected again.  
“Wait, then why was he worthless? If his defect didn’t affect his work as a general why would Prime, uh, get rid of him?”   
“Because Prime didn’t care, if he had a defect he was different and so he was worthless, at least to Prime. Anyway,” Entrapta pushed to continue her explanation, “while he was on the front lines a portal opened and sent him to Etheria. He tried to conquer Etheria and he built the portal so that he could go back show Horde Prime that he wasn’t worthless and so that he could go back to being a general. He just wants Prime’s approval, like what Catra wants from you and Shadoweaver.”   
“I uh--” Adora seemed a bit shocked with it all.   
“So,” Bow began, “Horde Prime just cast him aside because he was different, just sent him off to die?”   
“Yup,” Entrapta got up again and crawled back into the drone while Bow and Adora continued to process the new information. “I think I've got the drone working for us! Now all I have to do is move some of this other stuff around and we’ll be ready to fly!”   
“Do you still love him?” Bow’s question was intrusive but Entrapta wanted to answer and try to sort out her feelings.   
“I don’t know. He left me, Catra sent me off to Beast Island and then he left me behind. It was all so confusing, I thought he’d come and get me or send someone, but he left me…” Entrapta trailed off and swiped at her eyes. “I think I’m gonna go back to my room and get ready for the meeting.” She turned on her heel and walked quickly back to her room, the tears now streaming steadily down her face.   
Bow and Adora shot each other a look. Neither of them really knew how to handle a princess who’d been scorned by a conquering war lord. 

Once they were back on the transport a mediclone swept through each battalion categorising and cataloguing any casualties. E497 was in between E483 and E495. The mediclone reached E483 first.  
“On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the pain? Does the wound feel as if it burns? Do you feel any lightheadedness or headaches?” The mediclone leaned forward and began checking E483 for signs of infection.   
“I’d say about a 6 for pain, and it stings rather than burns. No headaches or lightheadedness, sir.” E483’s answers were short and mechanical, just as he had been conditioned to respond.   
“No sign of infection, severe blood loss or concussion, are there any other wounds?”   
“No ,sir.”   
“Good, then you will report to med bay for a salve and dressing you will be redeployed in a day.”   
The mediclone moved onto E497.  
“Any injuries?” The mediclone asked after quickly looking him over for external signs of injury.  
“No, sir.”   
Without bothering to reply or even acknowledge E497 the mediclone moved onto E495.   
It was clear that E495 was not in good shape, even to E497 who was not medically designated. His limbs were pale from blood loss while his chest was a dark purple patchwork, his breathing was short yet laboured and he could hardly form a sentence.   
“Internal bleeding, you will report to room Alpha 21 upon arrival, if you cannot complete this task a Zeta clone will collect your body.” The mediclone continued through the squadron.   
E497 knew about room Alpha 21, it was where clones who were deemed too much effort to heal would be sent for lethal injection followed by body processing. Waste was looked upon poorly in the Horde and so the clones who were broken, defective or dying would be turned into high calcium, high nitrogen fertilizer for the gardens. There was, of course, a system of sterilization and protease enzymes to ensure the safety of the masses. Room Alpha 21 was the worst place a clone could be sent. If you weren’t already dead, it would be a painful and torturous death.   
E497 should be there. His defect meant that he was physically weaker than any other clone, he should have been thrown into room Alpha 21 immediately, why waste resources on a broken, worthless clone, why put him into a squadron where his failings could hurt the unit? 

The Princess alliance was gathered in the war room, the two large seats at the head of the table were empty and the alliance looked wistfully towards them. Entrapta was seated next to Adora, who began the meeting.   
“Alright, Entrapta’s already managed to reprogram the ship and--”   
“Drone.” Entrapta corrected.   
“The drone, and we’ll be able to leave by late morning tomorrow. So we have until then to come up with a plan.”   
The Alliance responded with a blank look of shock.   
“Okay, you all seem a bit overwhelmed,” Bow sweetly stated the obvious. “So, why don’t we get Entrapta to fill you in on some of the details.”   
Both Adora and Bow looked at Entrapta encouragingly. She was nervous, she wasn’t usually afraid with sharing her data publicly, but working with Hordak and seeing how he reacted to her mannerisms and ways of speaking made her realise that others weren’t usually so kind.   
“Well uh, I have to move some data storage systems around, but once I get rid of them I can probably fit 7 people in the ship, and if we need to bring Catra and Glimmer back that means 5 can go up.” Entrapta twirled her hair and kept her eyes trained on the hologram of Etheria in front of her.   
“Well, I have to go, wild- I mean uh Catra will want to see someone who’s from the Horde, she’s less likely to resist the help.” Scorpia stood up tall and Entrapta was glad that she’d be coming, Scorpia seemed to be the only princess who actually liked her.   
“Okay,” Adora said writing something down. “Then there’s me and Bow and Entrapta going. We’ll need Bow and Entrapta for trouble shooting the drone and hacking anything we’ll need to get around on Prime’s ship.” She counted four fingers on her hand. “That leaves room for one more.”   
The other Princesses were quiet, this would be their most dangerous mission yet.   
“Or,” Bow answered, “We could leave one seat spare, you know why risk more people than we have to, and maybe something comes up and we need an extra seat.” He gave Entrapta an encouraging smile while Adora shot him a withering glare that could’ve terrified half of Beast Island.   
“Fine,” she sighed and crossed something out on her plan. “But we need a plan we can’t just go breaking in and asking where to find them.”   
Adora seemed extra grumpy and Entrapta returned her gaze to the table. She was confused, she still had feelings for Hordak but she wasn’t sure how she would react to seeing him again, and it’s not like he’d want to come with her anyway. Not when he finally had the approval of Horde Prime, not when he cared so little for her that he’d left her to die on Beast Island because it was more convenient.   
“Why don’t you send someone through the sewer system, I’m sure they’d love that.” Mermista’s voice was apathetic and Entrapta realised it must be sarcasm.   
“What about a stealth mission, steal a guards uniform and walk around pretending to be them!” Frosta seemed excited despite the fact that she wouldn’t be going with them.  
“Surely, that wouldn’t work, they don’t look like Hordak and the soldiers are all clones.” Perfuma seemed genuinely confused by now.   
“Guys!” Adora yelled. Her tone seemed practiced, was this how all their planning went? “We need to focus, Once we dock the drone, maybe Entrapta can hack the system and figure out where Glimmer and Catra are, or even Prime, he’d keep them close.” Adora studied some more papers before turning to Bow. “What do you think?”   
“Once we’re in, we’ll need to get out, will they notice the drone leaving?” Bow looked to Entrapta as though she understood everything about the Horde.  
“I don’t know, it depends on their patterns and monitoring, but I’m fairly certain I can find either Prime or Catra and Glimmer.”   
“Okay, we leave at 10 tomorrow, I would like to have some semblance of a plan by then!” Adora seemed to be struggling with the chaos of everyone’s answers.   
“There’s no way that we can go in undercover, we should dock as high up as close to the centre as possible, that’s where they’ll be.” Scorpia spoke up again before turning her gaze back to the table, her shyness was new to Entrapta.   
“What? How do you know that?” Bow asked.   
“It’s what Catra would do.” Adora answered, “she likes high places.”   
“Well, how are we going to get around with clones everywhere?” Bow asked desperately. “We can’t just dock up high and walk in like we own the place.”   
“I can hack the system Prime uses,” Entrapta spoke softly. “And I might be able to, uh, control them.” She took everyone’s shocked silence as a chance to explain.   
“WHAT?!” Adora yelled. “You mean like mind control? When were you going to tell us this!”   
Entrapta flinched. “I only figured it out today…”   
“I’m sorry,” Adora reached out to gently touch her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have snapped, I’m just trying to figure it all out.”   
Entrapta smiled back. “That's okay, I get it.” She smiled back, Adora seemed like she was at least accepting of her and her feelings. “From what I’ve seen of Prime’s tech from the drone, I can rig one of Bow’s surge devices to short out his systems, and uh the clones are part of the tech, the ports that Hordak had meant that Horde Prime could access his thoughts and his mind, that's how he controls them, I think I could do it too. I can be ready by tomorrow.”   
“Entrapta that’s… Alright! We’re doing it!” Adora cheered, and the others joined in.   
“We’re going to get them back!”


End file.
